Did any British built WW2 era aircraft operate or at least land and take-off from any USN carriers? I would have been interesting to see the USN crew's
reaction when a Stringbag lands amoungst their Hellcats and Corsairs. How about after WW2, pre-Phantom II? Did any Sea Fury, Sea Hawk, Scimitar, etc operate or
cross-deck from USN carriers?
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 Admiral Beez |
Did any British-built FAA WW2 aircraft operate from USN... |
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Posts: 4533 (13-May-2008 01:23:36) |
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NewGolconda |
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Posts: 3336 (13-May-2008 01:25:01) Commonwealth Moderator |
I seem to recall a photo of a stringbag aboard wasp.
edit, google is your friend. http://cv41.org/GRS/uss_wasp_prewwii/index.html
Last Edited By: NewGolconda
13-May-2008 02:13:21.
Edited 1 times.
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wabpilot |
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Posts: 2046 (13-May-2008 03:42:15) |
Admiral Beez wrote:Keep in mind that the most USN crews in the beginning of the war had handled and operated biplanes. The last biplane fighters were delivered to the USN in 1938 and served at least until 1943. How about after WW2, pre-Phantom II? Did any Sea Fury, Sea Hawk, Scimitar, etc operate or cross-deck from USN carriers?They most certainly did. I took a Med cruise aboard FDR and we cross-decked with a British aircraft operating from Gibralter and French aircraft from Foch and Clemenceau. We saw Scimitars, Sea Vixens and Buccaneers from the Brits and Etendard IVs from the Frogs. Gib was a good liberty port, much friendlier than Toulon. On my NORLANT cruise aboard Saratoga, we hosted a British F-4 squadron for most of the workups and the trip to England. Once on the other side, we CARQUALLED some Bucaneer pilots, their ship was finishing some maintenance. We also worked with some French F-8s on that cruise. When I was at LSO school, we had Brazilian Air Force S-2F LSO candidates. Talk about strange! But, the Brazilians worked hard at learning something that was alien to the light blue types. In those days, we had the use of Lexington for training. So, we'd fly out a bunch of LSO students aboard a US-2 to get some live practice. It was common to see Brazilian, Argentine, US, French, British and even Australians working Lex or qualling. Naval aviation is a small community and for the most part we all cooperated in training. The exception being the Soviets. |
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Obi Wan Russell |
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Posts: 209 (13-May-2008 11:11:13) |
Cross decking excercises between British and American CVs were commonplace during the 50s 60s and 70s. During one early 60s encouter between HMS Hermes and USS
Ranger the pilots comments were enlightening: FAA crews came up with suggestions for landing on the Ranger which included "Formation Landings!" and
"Not needing to put our Hooks down!" (because the US ship was somuch larger than they were used to), whilst the US pilots on seeing Hermes (then the
smallest strike carrier in NATO) commented that the Britiish were: "Nice Guys but Nuts!". Operating procedures for launch and landing were virtually
adentical between the two Navies at the time so cross decking was as much about familiarisng the deck crew with different aircraft as anything else.
In 1969 892NAS were deployed aboard USS Saratoga for their CARQUALLS as HMS Ark Royal wouldn't be ready for sea for another four to six months and operated as part of Saratogas Air Wing. The Extra Heat of the RR Speys in full afterburner was reported to have caused some damage to Sara's JBDs after two weeks of launches but no other problems seem to have been encountered. Cross decking CTOL aircraft between the RN and USN continued up until 1978 when Ark was withdrawn. Sea Harriers made occasional visits to US CVNs in the 80s and 90s, but oviously this was a one way exchange, unless there was an LHA/LHD in the area. |
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Nick Sumner |
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Posts: 574 (13-May-2008 14:09:50) |
Yes, there is an account in 'They gave me a Seafire' by Mike Crossley of two Seafire IIIs landing on USS Essex in August 1945. Both crashed which the
pilots found hideously embarrassing so they didn't take off again. I'm sure cross-deck operations must have been very common with both fleets operating
in close proximity to the coast of Japan.
Your Text Signature ...
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StewartG |
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Posts: 503 (13-May-2008 22:24:50) |
I don't think they were all that embarassed; IIRC they knew before landing that the Essex's arrestors - set for much heavier Hellcats - would put far
too sharp a pull on their Seafire airframes and pull out hooks / break the landing gear (which is what I think happened).
The other example which comes to mind is Wasp's two loads of Spitfires for Malta. |
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E F Draaijers |
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Registered Member
Posts: 191 (13-May-2008 22:51:18) |
Most well documented are the two ferryruns made by USS Wasp in 1942 in the support of Malta island, where she transported two loads of RAF Spitfire's Mk V
on her voyages in the Western Med. Although these are not actually FAA aircraft, they are definetly British and very simmilar to the later Navalized Seafire in
most aspects. For some time USN Aircraft Cariers, operating with the Royal Navy Aircraft Carriers sometimes took the FAA aircraft on board for refueling and
rearming, at least in the period USS Saratoga operated with HMS Victorious in the Indian Ocean, just for giving the FAA some training in USN aircraft landing
and supporting routine, needed for the later joint operations in the Pacific. The valuable experience alowed the BPF to operate together with the USN Pacific
Fleet in the last acts of the war in 1945.
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Admiral Beez |
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Posts: 4535 (14-May-2008 00:51:22) |
I don't think the RAF Spitfires landed on Wasp, but instead simply took off. I'm looking for examples of where British-built naval aircraft landed and
took off from USN carriers. IIRC, during the period when USS Saratoga operated with HMS Victorious in the Indian Ocean, the latter was operating with US-built
aircraft.
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NewGolconda |
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Posts: 3338 (14-May-2008 02:56:13) Commonwealth Moderator |
"I'm looking for examples of where British-built naval aircraft landed and took off from USN carriers."
You are not. You are asking others to look for you. If you were yourself you would be doing your own google searches ;-) |
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Mark E Horan |
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Posts: 356 (14-May-2008 08:54:04) |
Gents;
I don't know if "Spitfires" (plural) did, but assuredly one RAF Spitfire, with engine problems, returned and landed on Wasp. During her sorties, a couple of ASW Swordfish (see photo refered to above) landed on her as well. Mark |
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Admiral Beez |
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Posts: 4536 (14-May-2008 14:52:45) |
NewGolconda wrote: Of course I am myself, who else would I be? Now, if you'd said "if you were looking yourself...." that might've made sense. |
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